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A decision to ban Telegram on home soil may have backfired on the Kremlin. Last week, Russia went on a blocking spree, banning a number of Western apps in an effort to push domestic users towards Max, an unencrypted state-owned app. One of the restricted apps was WhatsApp (which was also blocked) rival Telegram, a move that drew rare internal criticism from soldiers and pro-war bloggers, with the army being heavily reliant on the cloud-based messaging service for communications. As reported by Bloomberg, pro-Russian military channels are now complaining that the sudden Telegram blackout coupled with Elon Musk cutting Russias access to Starlink earlier this month is now actively harming frontline operations. As well as being the messaging app of choice for millions of Russian civilians, soldiers also use Telegram to liaise directly on the battlefield. The government said last week that it was banning Telegram for violating national law, and that the decision was for the "protection of Russian citizens." Bloomberg was told by senior European diplomats that the double blow of Telegrams sudden unavailability and SpaceX moving to block Russias use of "unauthorized Starlink terminals in Ukraine earlier this month has had a significant impact on Russian comms. Starlinks satellite coverage is particularly important for coordinating the Russian militarys drone strikes, the frequency of which has seemingly been disrupted in recent weeks, giving Ukrainian forces an advantage. Whether these developments will have a longer term effect on the tide of the conflict remains to be seen, but a Ukrainian drone operator who calls himself Giovanni has told the BBC that the Russian army has lost "their ability to control the field" in the wake of the Starlink outage. "I think they lost 50% of their capacity for offence," he said. "That's what the numbers show. Fewer assaults, fewer enemy drones, fewer everything."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/russias-recent-blocking-of-telegram-is-reportedly-disrupting-its-military-operations-in-ukraine-135250159.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Meta is reportedly gearing up to enter another segment of the wearables market. According to The Information, the company is planning to release its first smartwatch sometime this year. Meta has revived its smartwatch initiative internally called Malibu 2, The Information says, which will come with Meta AI and health tracking.The same publication reported back in 2021 that Meta was working on a smartwatch powered by an open-source version of Android. Over the next year, more details of its possible features emerged, including reports that it had a detachable camera and that Meta was developing a model with up to three cameras. But in 2022, the company was believed to have put the project on hold to focus on other wearable devices. The Information says the decision to pause its smartwatch project was made as part of a broader cut in spending in the Reality Labs division. If youll recall, Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs in January, because the division was hemorrhaging money. Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call after the layoffs started that when it comes to Reality Labs, the company was focusing most of its investment towards glasses and wearables going forward. At the moment, Metas wearable products are comprised of virtual reality headsets and smartglasses. They include the Meta Ray-Bans, which are a hit in the US. Meta reportedly has four augmented reality and mixed-reality glasses in development, but itll take some time until we see them. Based on previous reports, it pushed back the unveiling of its next mixed reality headset model codenamed Phoenix to early 2027.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-reportedly-plans-to-release-a-smartwatch-this-year-121247838.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
The average smartphone lasts about two years before it's replaced. Vignette Tech wants to flip the script on how people feel about holding onto their devices. The concept is simple: colorful stickers that users stick on the back of their phones, tablets or laptops one for each year of use. Instead of looking outdated, a phone sporting stickers reading '22, '23, '24 and '25 signals longevity. Anyone who's driven through Switzerland will recognize the inspiration: the colorful annual toll stickers that accumulate on car windshields year after year. Vignette Tech transplants that familiar visual logic onto personal electronics.The stickers are sold in sets covering different time ranges, with the latest edition running from 2026 through 2031, and are priced at EUR 4 or 5 per sheet. There's even a "Highlander" edition, for those rocking phones or laptops from the mid-2010s. Sales proceeds from the initiative, created by French design agency Machin Bidule, also support La Collecte Tech and Emmaüs Connect, organizations working on digital inclusion and electronic waste reduction in France.TREND BITEWith manufacturers like Google and Samsung now offering seven-plus years of software support, the technical case for holding on to a phone has never been stronger but the pressure to upgrade remains relentless. Vignette Tech is interesting because it addresses the problem at an identity level rather than at a guilt level. Instead of lecturing people about e-waste, it makes longevity a flex. That cultural reframing aligns with a broader pattern worth replicating: brands and creators finding ways to make sustainable behavior socially desirable rather than morally obligatory.
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Marketing and Advertising
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